“Smiter of the High and Mighty”

FLIES ON TOAST

After Friday’s demonstration and the on-going PLAGUE OF FLIES, there was a packed out Avonmouth Neighbourhood Forum last night. The regular meeting is known to locals as the ‘dust forum’, because it usually involves discussing shitty clouds of some description blowing over the Docks boundaries into Avonmouth Village and the surrounding areas.

Assistant Mayor Gus Hoyt was handed down the task to deal with these issues months ago by the Mayor on behalf of the City Council, but has since denied responsibility and failed to turn up. The Environment Agency were nowhere to be seen and many residents pointed out if they’re partly responsible why the fuck weren’t they invited?

Boomeco the company responsible for the fly infestation had their Managing Director Oliver ‘ever so sorry’ Latter there. Conservative MP Charlotte ‘Bacardi’ Leslie and two Tory councillors were there along with Sue Turner director of communications at the port.

The meeting began with Oliver Latter standing in front of the packed community centre looking like he’d SHAT HIMSELF, saying he was very sorry and he’s clearing up his mess as we speak. But the community were unrelenting in their questioning ‘WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT OUR SIDE OF THE FENCE?’ They also invited him to stay the night in one of their houses saying he could have ‘flies on toast for breakfast’. Latter he refused to take up any of the community’s suggestions of acts of goodwill, like distributing free fly spray or fly strips that residents have been forking out for. The company could easily afford this, but if they did, they’d be in a way accepting responsibility before the Environment Agency proceedings come to an end.

Charlotte Leslie tried her smarmy best to appear reasonable and also defuse the anger aimed at The Port Company and Boomeco. However one resident shouted from the back of the room ‘£28,000 quid’, the amount that the Port Company recently donated to Tory Leslie and she (illegally) failed to declare to Parliament. Another ‘cash for questions’ scandal in the making?

Sue Turner from the Port also received her share of the justified abuse after saying ‘we have a legally bound obligation to allow all Ships to dock’, but people heckled that ‘doesn’t mean they can dump unsafe crap in the open air’ in Avonmouth. Tory Councillor Wayne Harvey who works at the Port played confused and told everyone to ‘keep letting us know when we slip up’ to keep talking and emailing in, to which one resident asked ‘if they’d get paid part of his wages for doing part of his job for him?’

All of the speakers arrogance shone through by trying to tell residents that other incidents of pollution weren’t on the agenda and not relevant. But of course they are relevant because they’ve been through it all before with a million other companies in Avonmouth, and people are sick to the teeth. And as a speaker said this ‘couldn’t happen up Sneyd Park’; because Avonmouth isn’t rich it gets ignored over and over again.

These Scumbag companies that have operated out of the port over the years that have shat on Avonmouth, whilst making tons of money off of the people who work for them and profiting from the health problems caused, are pushing residents to the edge once more.

So in summary The Tories, The Port company and Boomeco played pass the blame, enjoying when residents were directing their anger at absentees the Environment Agency or Ferguson and Hoyt.

How Boomeco and the Port can stand there whilst residents talk emotively about their children getting pneumonia, respiratory problems and cooking in fly infested kitchens and give people nothing but the promise of another meeting is shameful. These new companies at the port are replacing old technologies with supposed new ‘green’ ones that are doing just as much harm to residents health as before and sticking ‘eco’ in your name isn’t going to cut it.

The community won’t accept just another meeting; there was talk of more demonstrations and direct action as the meeting was wrapping up. Watch this space

Post navigation

2 thoughts on “FLIES ON TOAST”

I leaves in 46 Richmond terra really two years ago now and this problem was there then clouds of saw dust coming over car was covered in dust not a health place to leave at all and then the flys was unreal I have seen flys but down in Avonmouth is a different story.
We spent a lot of money on are house in the many years we leaved there and got the house looking great to find that we got pushed by the flys we was sick to death of them and found a new place to leave and moved and very happy we’re we are now fly free and dust free and feel so much healthier as well I feel sorry for the people that we left behind as they fight a battle with and company that have money and don’t give a toss about anyone but there pocket and this will all ways be the same. And as for the mayor why was he ever voted in makes me laugh more interest in doing his parking sceam than helping the local people and there health.
Good luck Avonmouth.

I have just done a small research into the breading habits of the fly!!!! Not meaning to undermine any one, but it is my belief that the flies we have partying in our homes at present are 2nd or even 3rd generation flies from the flies responsible for penetrating the broken bags of waste. (They, probably have ended their natural life span by now) But as each female only needs to mate once, is capable of producing 9,000 eggs laid in several batches, (each batch capable of hatching at different times depending on the weather temperature. They can and often do lay their eggs several miles away from their feeding grounds. What I’m trying to say is that several multiples of thousands of female flies must have put down perhaps who knows millions of eggs now just waiting for warmer weather. This could be just the tip of a big iceberg. We must of course take into consideration that flies have predators and they will of course play their part in keeping the fly population down, but as we are experiencing a fly epidemic, at this time then I feel that it will get worse once the weather conditions get warmer.
3 minutes ago · Like